We are very happy to post the second part of Jacques Fleury's commentary on the Georgian Wine Industry. In the first part, Jacques reflected on the experience of surviving the Russian embargo, on the one hand, and dealing with a series of heavy-handed and incompetent government interventions, on the other.
An unprejudiced look at the Georgian economy is rather disenchanting. Starting in 1990 at a per capita income that was close to Poland’s, Georgia went into a free fall as a result of secession wars, loss of markets, an explosion of crime and corruption, and the staggering incompetency of its governments.
Recent strikes of minibus drivers in Tbilisi have reminded all of us about the long-forgotten issue of labor rights in Georgia. Since the new government came to power at the beginning of October, employee protests have become a regular “inconvenience”.
On January 24, 2013, Robert Tchaidze, Senior Economist with the European Department of the IMF, delivered a presentation titled “Turkey: From Crisis to Recovery, 1999-2005.” The presentation covered the causes of the 2001 crisis, the anti-crisis programs undertaken by the Turkish government in cooperation with the IMF, and the country’s subsequent recovery.
“Don’t rush to judgment on Georgia” was the title of a recent article by Michael Cecire in Foreign Policy (FP). Written in an apparent reaction to “Georgian Dream shows its dark side” (FP, November 29), and “Georgia’s government takes a wrong turn” (Washington Post, November 28), Cecire’s piece attempts to provide a more objective account of the situation.